Next Iron Chef Premiere Recap: 'That Hot Pepper Almost Blew Her Head Off'

In the first episode of The Next Iron Chef's third season: Duskie Estes gets a little cocky, Andrew Kirschner's grub gets spat out, and Ming Tsai is the chef to beat. Now that we've said goodbye to Top Chef, and as part of a new ongoing recap series, we talked to season-one winner and judge Michael Symon about the surprise elimination and whether The Chairman's head really makes that weird noise.

ESQUIRE:The secret ingredient for the first challenge was bread. What makes an ingredient difficult to work with?

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

MICHAEL SYMON: For me, it's always hardest to work with something that's not a protein, because it's a little harder to make it the star of the show. But I think the hard part of the sandwich challenge was that you're taking something that's an American classic — people have in their mind what a sandwich should be.

ESQ:Chef Pagan voted his own sandwich worst and Chef Estes voted hers best. Would you ever vote for yourself to win or lose?

More From Esquire

MS: I wouldn't have done either of those things. I think it showed a lot about the character and the make-up of both chefs. You have Chef Estes, who obviously has a lot of confidence, and Chef Pagan, who was a little more unsure of himself. He's in an environment where he's surrounded by all these other great chefs and he let self-doubt creep in. I mean, this season's chefs really have a broad depth of talents. I think they would have given my season a run for our money. Don't get me wrong, we'd win. But it's a great group of chefs.

ESQ:It seemed like a lot of contestants were intimidated by Chef Tsai.

MS: I'm sure they were. I bet you when they walked in, most of them thought he was a judge.

ESQ:Is it fair that he's competing?

MS: Absolutely. Some of these chefs are more well-known by the public, but let me assure you that all these chefs are extremely talented. If I had to pick a favorite from day one? Chef Tsai has been around. He knows how to handle pressure.

ESQ:For the Chairman's Challenge the chefs had to be ingenious using the one ingredient they would bring to a desert island. What would you have brought?

MS: I probably would have gone pig or egg. But here's the thing: If I picked egg, then I'm sitting on this beach with a grill in front of me. I guess that's the point of it. But before I knew what the challenge was I would have been thinking, "I can make flour so I could make pasta, I can make eggs by themselves." It's versatile.

ESQ:Chef Tsai won, but you seemed to be pulling for Forgione.

MS: The other judges didn't like Forgione's dish. I really work hard in judging Next Iron Chef to judge on technique and not what my personal opinion is. Just because I may not like something spicy or sweet doesn't meant the dish wasn't done correctly. Out of everything on the beach that day, nothing was cooked as well as Forgione's coconut chicken. The wing was a little sweet, but not nearly as sweet as the other judges found it.

ESQ:Donatella is pretty harsh. She even spat out Kirschner's dish.

MS: That hot pepper almost blew her head off. One of the lessons of eating is, "Let the chef explain the dish before you dig in." But the other side of that is, "You shouldn't need directions to eat food."

ESQ:Which is a bigger kiss of death, burning a judge's tongue or giving them food with sand in it?

MS: Pagan gave me the food with the sand. And part of me said, "How can I fault there being sand in the food on a windy beach?" But none of the other chefs had sand in their food. Nine of them figured out how to not get it in there. It's hard, though. It's just brutal sending people home. Especially Kirschner, who I thought would be there to the end. The fat between the meat and skin of the duck did him in.

ESQ:We have to ask: What's up with the sound effects? Whenever Mark Dacascos moves his head he sounds like a cartoon.

MS: Part of the allure of Iron Chef is that it's a very serious show. It's an intense showdown, two chefs going head to head in Kitchen Stadium. That swishing sound brings a little levity to it. I can assure you that when I'm standing next to him in person his head does not make that noise.